diff --git a/app/access_controls/app_defaults.php b/app/access_controls/app_defaults.php
index 03077b6aa2..a540e6d9b0 100644
--- a/app/access_controls/app_defaults.php
+++ b/app/access_controls/app_defaults.php
@@ -36,9 +36,24 @@
 			if ($row['num_rows'] == 0) {
 				//set the directory
 					$xml_dir = $_SESSION["switch"]["conf"]["dir"].'/autoload_configs';
-
+					$xml_file = $xml_dir."/acl.conf.xml";
+					$xml_file_alt = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"].'/'.PROJECT_PATH.'/resources/templates/conf/autoload_configs/acl.conf';
 				//load the xml and save it into an array
-					$xml_string = file_get_contents($xml_dir."/acl.conf.xml");
+					if (file_exists($xml_file)) {
+						$xml_string = file_get_contents($xml_file);
+					}
+					elseif (file_exists($xml_file_alt)) {
+						$xml_string = file_get_contents(xml_file_alt);
+					}
+					else {
+						$xml_string = "<configuration name=\"acl.conf\" description=\"Network Lists\">\n";
+						$xml_string .= "	<network-lists>\n";
+						$xml_string .= "		<list name=\"domains\" default=\"deny\">\n";
+						$xml_string .= "			<node type=\"allow\" domain=\"".$_SESSION['domain_name']."\"/>\n";
+						$xml_string .= "		</list>\n";
+						$xml_string .= "	</network-lists>\n";
+						$xml_string .= "</configuration>\n";
+					}
 					$xml_object = simplexml_load_string($xml_string);
 					$json = json_encode($xml_object);
 					$conf_array = json_decode($json, true);